Uncertain future has farmers feeling gloomy

With all the reasons to feel good about farm prospects — the emergence of agri-food as the leading economic driver, the food-health-environment connection, local food, etc. — a new poll by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business announcing gloomy feelings on the farm seemed contradictory to me. But according to the federation, Ontario farmers don’t feel stabilization policies are in place to give them a secure feeling about the future. They’ve formed a coalition to draw some attention to their plight, which is the subject of my Urban Cowboy column in today’s Guelph Mercury.

Even with pessimism in the agri-food sector, the federation’s business barometer (below) is looking positive as 2010 gets underway.

“It is no coincidence that in the years national spending on health care went from 5 percent to 16 percent of national income, spending on food has fallen by a comparable amount — from 18 percent of household income to less than 10 percent. While the surfeit of cheap calories that the U.S. food system has produced since the late 1970s may have taken food prices off the political agenda, this has come at a steep cost to public health.”

Michael Pollan, The New York Times. October 14, 2008 “Dear Mr. Next President — Food, Food, Food”

Though these are American, the Candian statistics are probably quite similar.